An open letter to Caryl Churchill from a Palestinian Mother
By Iqbal Tamimi • May 3rd, 2009 at 13:55 • Category: Children's Corner, Features, Israel, Newswire, Palestine, Religion, Resistance, Somoud: Arab Voices of Resistance, War, ZionismPalestinian Mothers are thanking you for your great contributions to peace and understanding. We support your calls for common sense and reminding everybody of what we have in common of unconditional love for our children, we support your mission; your words healed some of our wounds. http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/video/2009/apr/25/seven-jewish-children-caryl-churchill
Allow me to join you.. And tell her that….
Tell her soon she will grow up like all young girls do, she will get married and become a mother…
Tell her blood is dearer than oil. Explain to her what kind of oil you are talking about; explain to her how many chocolate bars one can buy for the price of one bomb.
Tell her she should reject discrimination and call for equal rights for all when she grows up… No… do not tell her that now… discrimination is a big word… just tell her every human being is special and we are all equal, you might have to tell her why some people are more equal than others.
Tell her if the killing stops we will enjoy art, music, and literature… don't tell her that, just tell her that she will play outside as much as she wants, and she can play with all the children.
Tell her to demand an apology of the Israeli state to every mother who lost a child. No… don't… just tell her no more children are going to be killed.
Tell her to request compensating people for their losses. Tell her that she might have to share her toys.
Tell her that we never intended to kill the children and women of Gaza, and did not mean to bomb the schools, hospitals, universities, and ambulances, tell her we are going to rebuild everything. Do not tell her that her father was flying an F-16 and that he bombed the school in Gaza… tell her F-16s deliver milk sometimes… No… do not lie to her, she will find out later.
Tell her Israel is no democracy, no democracy will discriminate against one's beliefs. Don't… she does not know yet what democracy or beliefs mean, she only knows lollypops, dolls and candy floss, just tell her that all children should be able to taste some sweets.
Tell her a democratic state will never imprison 55 MPs who represent the people. Don't tell her that Palestinian MPs have children her own age.
Tell her children of her age are in prison with the criminals deprived of schooling because they dared to love their country. Tell her not to be worried, for Jewish children do not go to prison.
Tell her to thank God that she is not a pregnant Palestinian woman about to give birth at a checkpoint. Tell her if she becomes pregnant she will deliver her baby in the most comfortable way and she will be supervised by the best doctors in the best equipped hospitals.
Tell her we love her. Tell her the USA loves her.
Tell her she can change everybody’s future because she will save many lives. Do not tell her that we never cared about the blood of Palestinians unless it was donated for transfusion to our sick. Tell her that her great grand parents lived in peace with Palestinians for hundreds of years before the apartheid regime ruled over the land of peace. Tell her Muslims are now fanatics, do not tell her about the Christian Palestinians. Just tell her we do not need their help any more.
Tell her we want to sleep without fears. Tell her about the mini rockets fired from Gaza to Sderot, but do not tell her that Sderot was the home of those refugees of Gaza. Do not tell her about the tons of rockets and missiles fired on Gaza.
Tell her the white phosphorus bombs were fireworks celebrating the New Year.
Tell her not to be frightened, all the Palestinians want is equal rights and justice. Do not tell her that we consider Palestinians as animals and unworthy of life.
Tell her if she is brave to change this ugly system one day we will all meet like all good neighbours do.
Tell her Palestinian mothers used to babysit for Jewish mothers like sisters.
Tell her not to believe all the lies she hears from mainstream media. She can only trust Tom and Jerry, but not to believe in Superman.
Tell her if she really believes in God she will respect life and dignity of others. Do not tell her that we consider Palestinians not worthy of respect.
Tell her God is capable of making prophecies come true if he wants without the help of Zionists. Do not tell her that we manipulate relegion whenever we like to suit our agenda, do not tell her that most of our government are secular people who never practiced Judaism.
Tell her no God will favour some of his children over the rest of them. But still tell her we are the chosen people.
Tell her it is not fair that she came from Russia and she lives in a Palestinian home while a Palestinian woman and her family were expelled from their home where they used to live for 1400 years.
Tell her… to ask them… why this woman can't go home now.
Tell her why people in her home town can't pray in their local mosque as they used to for hundreds of years.
Tell her 11,870 Palestinians are detained in prisons the majority were never tried at a court.
Tell her a Palestinian woman said when she dies she wants to be buried in her home under a vine tree, tell her do something to stop them uprooting the trees.
Tell her my body blossomed from the soil of Palestine and one day it should be reunited with Palestine's soil to nourish a jasmine tree….climb the windows and stretch to hug the sky.
Tell her when she prays for children's safety, she should not pray only for Jewish children, God would not like that… angles are immuned against Zionist propaganda.
Tell her only justice can bring peace.
Iqbal Tamimi is a Palestinian journalist and poet from Hebron. She is the creator of a vibrant and important activists' network Palestinian Mothers, open to all who share the vision of peace and justice, men and women alike. She is working now in UK.
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As salam. Message of this article is 'complete' and we all should send this link to our frineds. Because we want support for 'justice'…
Tell her that I join the Palestinian Mothers' voice worldwide and agree that the Jewish will never have Peace unless they come to their senses!
Exceptional collage of the words of Caryl Churchill with photos.
Thank you! I shall be sending this on…
Paul
Paul, the photoessay was written by Iqbal Tamimi, inspired by the Churchill play.
OK, these are not the words of the play? I have read the play,
but I can't remember it verbatim. Has Ibqal changed the wording?
OK, these are not the words of the play? I have read the play,
but I can't remember it verbatim. Has Iqbal changed the wording?
Oh yes I can see the words are very different..but echo the play in some way
Iqbal
this is very strong!!!
@Gilad – Gilad it seems it is…few minutes ago I have copied few lines and used them as a comment on an article published by the Guardian…Guess what happened? the minute people hailed my comment…the moderator of the Guardian deleted my comment. You can see a picture of the comment deleted here
http://www.palestinianmothers.com/profiles/blogs/why-has-the-guardian-deleted
Can you answer my question please? WHY has the GUARDIAN deleted my comment?
very well said and this is a emotional appeal that everyone should act to.
The middle east as i know is a young community and most of senior partnerships are today under Socialist Secular Military Rulers who are sitting there making fun of democracy and feeding their juntas.i mean Egypt especially.The Palestinians have the right to curtail their relations as far as well off democratic states and leave the dictatorship of these regimes in their external internal affairs.
Social Governments are today as important as political ones and you must understajd that Isrealis themselves have relationships because The UNo gave them certain rights after the Europeans had turned away from them completely and made them suffer beyond humasn limits to sustain.But the western cenima and literature say press sang hatred amongst muslims and jews although in history there had been no conflicts and majority of jews were raised in bombay and are still bourgeois class there .
Palestinians have the right i repeat to curtail their relationships and not become victims of international treasons because as far as i am sure that peace has been negotiated and few strips of settlers and similar economic reasons become the cause of such bad conflicts where children are hurt and uncertianity looms amongst our Palestinian brathers. one of the reason that the Isrealis fight back and destroy economy but they should escuse the public whivch can be cordoned in case they warn they are moving in to destroy homes of fighters like the Indian army has been doing in Kashmir. But CHANGE is unstoppableINSHAHALLAH and richer than jews money and more ethical than the transatlantic books and we will see a day of peace.You must remember that on his sick bed Isreali Prime Minister Sharon accepted that a Democratic decision was imminenbt for Jerusalem .brother Ghazi Yasser Arafat also announced the Isrealis as cousins but the recent governments are taking too much foriegn intervention and they have the right to bring relationship of all the muslim nations that are only friends because they have handouts and are not there to help in intense need of dialgue that can stop fighting…..
Prayer..O Lord Allah send amongst us forward the one you choose who is non dependent but on the advise you have sent through the Koran The Wise! And Negotiate us out of this horror and free us from this horror and forgive us for our past you be our source and your teachings our resource back to out gardens ! Amen..
@Iqbal Tamimi –
My dear, do you really need an answer?
The Western universe is becoming a very sad place.
Freedom of speech, is just another myth.
You are free to lie, the truth is just too painful for them to cope with.
Make an experiment, pick for yourself an innocent kosher name, something like , Moishe Greenpotz, or David Roseklotz or even Ruth Cohen Levi Zacohvzky and then comment to them how wonderful Israel is, you can also write about Jewish suffering. I promise you, no one will delete you then.
peace
Gilad
@Shahzada Sher Saddozai – You're a big big big mendacity bag…
@#12 – Gilad
This is so sad but true. Ever since entering cyberspace many years ago to interact with others by debating and discussing, I have seen time and again just how cowardly are those wanting to control the official narrative. At times they claim to be weeding out hate speech (though as Gilad points out, pro-Israel is honored) but more often than not give no explanation; they just delete comments and/or ban the poster. The list of sites I am banned from is a who's-who of cowards.
I would have more respect for those who would support their own argument even if I disagreed with them, but to run from a debate because you know you do not have the facts on your side is very telling. It is not who has the stronger argument who wins in these cases, but who gets to "choose" which argument wins. Our MSM (the Mighty Wurlitzer) is part of the problem.
That being said, much respect and admiration to all those sharing ideas and taking action in order to help bring about meaningful change and justice for those who are denied it.
[...] on Churchill's ten minute short play, which you can read in full here. Thanks PTT (published here without PTT's [...]
Hasbouna allah we ni3ma elwekil….